You Were Never Meant to Do This Alone | Mornings with Mico

Yo, yo, some of my peoples, man, how we doing today? Name is Meeko, and welcome to my one-on-one time with God. This week, we've been unpacking some of the letters that you guys have been writing in in response to these Morning with Meeko episodes, and I've just used them to build out our devotional time this week. And I wanna start today from this thought. I don't know if anybody shared this with you before, but you don't have to do this alone. You were never supposed to do this alone. I noticed that of several of the letters that I received, there's like a common through line for many of them, and it's this theme of loneliness. One letter in particular from Kentucky, the writer shared that they were preparing to come home, but they didn't have much family waiting on them when they came home, and then received another letter from someone down in Florida, just expressed the desire to be around people who would encourage them and challenge them and help them grow. And both of these letters, two different letters, they don't know each other, two completely different stories, but I couldn't help but notice the same ache, right? The same pain point, the ache, the need to belong. And if I'm honest, I don't think that that's just a prison thing, right? I think that that's, honestly, it's a human thing.

It's the way God designed us. There's people surrounded by thousands of other people who completely feel lonely. As I read those two letters in particular, I was reminded how deeply every one of us actually longs for connection, for community, for family, for somewhere to belong. In Psalms 68, starting at chapter five, or chapter 68, starting at verse five, it says, a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families. He leads out the prisoners with singing, but the rebellious live in sun-scorched land. And in reading this, I think that it's just true. One of the lies that the enemy uses so often to deceive us is this idea that we're alone, that our issues are exclusive to us, that nobody understands or nobody cares, nobody sees me, nobody needs me, nobody wants me. Maybe we're unlovable, unforgivable. Maybe we're just better just dealing with the issues on our own and not tapping into any community around us. But from the very beginning, God declared that it's not good for man to be alone. If I'm honest with you, this is part of my journey. I can recall a few seasons ago, some years ago, I had a friend tell me straight up when I was just going through a really low time and they were like, Meek, man,

the thing that you need most is what you value the least, and that's relationships. For me, I still kind of treated relationships as very transactional. I'm like, what are relationships gonna do for me? Can they help with the situation I'm in? Do they have the answers to the problems? Do they have something that they can offer that can bring a sense of relief or solutions to the things I'm dealing with? I didn't value relationships the way that I should, but in all honesty, we were created for relationships, created for family, created to belong. And that's why I love this verse. I think that if I'm honest, I was actually having a conversation with a friend the other day, and I'm like, man, I think that just from my experiences, there are certain things that God specifically hides in the context of relationships. There are certain breakthroughs, there are certain, some of his goodness that he specifically places in relationships that causes us to have to lean into relationships in order to experience what he has for us. Everything isn't gonna just be between us and God. Everything won't necessarily be vertical. There are some things that he's going to place horizontally where it's gonna cause us to have to grow in humility to be in these relationships,

to surrender to be in these relationships, to have grace to be in these relationships, to be forgiving, to be in these relationships, right? All of these things that make us more like Christ in order to be in these relationships. And I think it's just very intentional. I love how in the verse, it says God sets lonely in families, sets the lonely in families. It doesn't say that the lonely finds families. It says that he places them there. This is his heart, this is who he is. He sees the isolated, he sees the forgotten, he sees the overlooked, and he moves toward them. He moves towards us. One of the primary ways that he does this is through his people. I can tell you like so many times as of over, The past few years, I've just been so grateful for the community of men that I got around me. It's to the point where, and I think I've shared this before, like, I just started to build these one-on-one relationships with these different guys. And then ultimately end up saying, man, y'all should meet each other. And then they met each other. And then now this is our crew, these dope relationships that I had individually with these people. Now that's formed our inner circle. And then our wives are also becoming best friends. And it's just, it's just so beautiful to see, like, like how God's design shows up or how it unfolds and the fruit that's in it. I think that, um, the church, if, if, if, if. To be honest, the church was never meant to be just a place that we attend. It's meant to be a family that we belong to. And for me, I can say specifically that these relationships that I began to build were with people from my church or people that I, you know, began to, um, bring into the church, but the church is ultimately the body, right? So whether it's, uh, an actual, you know, you know, um, organization or church, whatever, or it's just the body of believers, whatever the case is, like we're called to lean into that.

If I'm one of the things that, as I, as I've been building out, um, this, this, this prison initiative here at Crossroads, one of the things that I believe I just, God's placed on my heart. And I just have a strong conviction of is to find ways to make everyone on, you know, that's incarcerated, that, that, that calls Crossroads, their church. How do we make, how do we bridge that gap to bring people as much into this fold as possible to make you feel as much a part of this body as possible? That's something that we're always, I'm always having conversations with in meetings, you know, about as we have these different things that, that we're doing within a church. I'm like, okay, now how does this translate to possibly Pando or maybe some events in different prisons or just relationships that we can begin to form with people who are incarcerated? I'd say while I'm doing that on my end, another thing that I'll, I'll, I'll share with you is wherever you are, I encourage you to lean into whatever community you have there. Whether it's at the chapel, whether it's with, with, with other men or women, you know, in your dorm or, you know, just incarcerated with you, like begin to pray like, Lord, help me to build that family. Help me to build that, that, that, that sense of belonging, even where I am now amongst a group of believers. I think that the primary way that, that, um, that God actually moves towards us is through his people. And whether you're the person that he wants to move through to someone else or whether he wants to use someone else to move, you know, through to get to you, right? Like this is just how he operates. And I encourage you, I challenge you even like seek that God helped me open my eyes to see, send me, send me companionship while I'm here. Right. A brother, a sister that I can build with, because that, that, that sense of community isn't simply meant for when you come home or when you get out. Like, no, that that's now that that's available to you now. I think that, um, I just say that if you, if, if you're feeling alone, um, today, um, I just want to tell you, you matter. Um, I feel led to just show you, you belong, you're seen, um, you're cared for, you're thought of everything that we're doing that even on our ends. And we're not just the only people doing this, you know, but you guys are being prayed for. Um, as we're reading letters and responding, like, like finding different ways to make the rest of the church aware of your voice and things like that. And I'll share more things to come, you know, um, at a later time, but like, know that, know that you're thought of, know that you're cared for, know that you're seen, know that you matter. Um, if you're part of the body of Christ, you have brothers and sisters all over the world, walking this journey with you. And if God has given you room at your table, room in your schedule, room in your heart, maybe he's inviting you to become family for somebody else and embrace that, embrace that so much. Like of this walk with God, I'm constantly being reminded that, that my story isn't always on, like, it's not all about me. So lean into that to see who you're called to be family for as well. Um, I'll leave you with this question. Who has God placed around you that could become family? Pray that seek him for that. God opened my eyes to see who have you placed around me that could become family to me. It's season in this chapter, you know, of your life, whatever that may look like. I want to say, I want to close with this, um, as we've kind of walked through these

letters, every last one of these devotions that, that we've done this week, it stems from, you know, one of these letters and. Odds are any, any one of you could have written one of these letters yourself, the same walls, um, the same questions, the same guy close enough for you to write home about, but that's the point, right? The point of this, you know, the faith in these letters, they didn't grow somewhere easier or like somewhere, you know, where life is just a little more peachy. They grew in the same conditions that you were, that you're in now. And wanting you to, to, to, I guess, wherever you are and whatever you're carrying into this week, right? Whatever brokenness or waiting or loneliness or whatever lie that the enemy is trying to use to, to trip you up, telling you it's too late or you don't matter or something, whatever it is, you're not reading about somebody else's God. We're not, we're not here. We're not, you're not listening to me or whatever reading about somebody else's God, we're talking about the same God that you serve. And so if there's anything in any of these stories that, you know, I've inspired you, um, know that the same God that, that, that showed up in these people's lives are the same God that I'm serving, that we're serving. Like that's the same God that you're serving. That's available to you. So just want to encourage you in it. And, um, yeah, I pray for us and we'll call it a wrap. Father, thank you for seeing the lonely. Thank you for creating us for relationship and community. Help me to receive the family you've given me and help me to become family to someone else. Amen.